Mullen working to shorten downrange tours

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Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, talks Thursday to soldiers at Camp Zama in Japan about downrange deployments, military contractors and medical care for wounded servicemembers.


Mullen working to shorten downrange tours
By Teri Weaver, Stars and Stripes
Mideast edition, Friday, November 9, 2007


CAMP ZAMA, Japan — Fifteen-month-long U.S. Army deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan are taking their toll on soldiers and their families, the military’s top officer told a group of about 150 soldiers Thursday afternoon.

“Fifteen months is too long,” Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the group during a town-hall meeting at Camp Zama in Japan. “We’ve got to move off the 15 months.”

Mullen said he is working with Army leadership to shorten the deployments, which were increased from 12 to 15 months in April.

“They are really tired,” he said of soldiers he met with recently in Iraq during their 14th consecutive month at war.

On Thursday, Mullen also had a private lunch with a group of Army captains at Zama. He said those officers, too, talked about the stress of deployments and the anxiety of waiting for new orders in the face of an overseas family move and an upcoming assignment at war.

“They are looking for ways to stay” in the military, he said, adding that he plans to take their concerns back to Army leadership in Washington.


Rest of article at: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=50147